Arsenal stroll to Community Shield win over Man City

Oliver Giroud scored the third on Sunday

Manchester City didn't look at the races on Sunday but take nothing away from Arsenal, who dominated the Community Shield and strolled to a 3-0 win.

Arsenal won the first silverware of the season with a resounding 3-0 victory over Manchester City in the Community Shield at Wembley.

Goals from Santi Cazorla, Aaron Ramsey and Olivier Giroud secured Arsenal a comfortable win as Gunners fans were able to celebrate two trophies in three months, adding Community Shield success to May's FA Cup victory.

For the new season's curtain-raiser Manuel Pellegrini opted to start with summer signing Willy Caballero ahead of Joe Hart, with fellow new recruit Fernando given his debut in midfield. The line-up was missing the likes of Vincent Kompany, Sergio Aguero and Pablo Zabaleta as fringe players such as Stevan Jovetic and Matija Nastasic were given the chance to impress.

Arsene Wenger's side looked more like the one that will start their first Premier League match as he gave debuts to new signings Mathieu Debuchy, Calum Chambers and Alexis Sanchez. Yaya Sanogo was picked ahead of Giroud after getting four goals against Benfica in the recent Emirates Cup.

It was Arsenal who were well on top in the early stages and their star summer signing Sanchez impressed from the off. Sanogo came close to finishing off a fantastic Debuchy cross, but it didn't take long for the Gunners to take the lead.

On 21 minutes Arsenal came forward and, after Dedryck Boyata appeared to foul Jack Wilshere, the ball ran to Cazorla 20 yards from goal. The Spaniard created space and put the ball on to his left foot before hitting a low drive that went across Caballero and into the bottom corner of the net.

Cazorla turned creator moments later as he played in Sanogo, who dragged his shot wide of the target with only Caballero to beat. The big striker then placed a header straight at the City keeper from an Arsenal corner as Wenger's side dominated the play.

The Gunners doubled their lead on 42 minutes from a swift counter-attack. Sanogo got free and he picked out Ramsey, who had made a lung-bursting run into the penalty area. The midfielder took one touch to create space before firing a powerful shot into the bottom corner.

Wenger made three changes at half-time as Laurent Koscielny, Sanchez and Sanogo were replaced by Nacho Monreal, Alex Oxlade-Chamberlain and Giroud. City only made one change to their struggling side as Nasri was withdrawn for David Silva. The introduction of Silva seemed to spark City into the life at the start of the second half and Jovetic had two good chances to score.

Firstly, Jesus Navas stood up a cross to the back post where Jovetic jumped highest and it only stayed out thanks to the combination of Wojciech Szczesny and the post. Three minutes later and Jovetic stung the palms of the Arsenal keeper with a powerful strike from the edge of the box.

Despite City's improvement it was Arsenal who struck again as Giroud effectively wrapped up the game. Questions will be asked of Caballero after Giroud's shot from 25 yards looped over his head with the keeper out of position off his goal line. Despite the less-than-stellar goalkeeping, Giroud should be applauded for what was a fantastic strike.

From that point on the pace of the game dropped dramatically and it became a little bit fragmented due to the large number of substitutions which took place. City tried in vain to get back into it but in reality things were comfortable for Arsenal. Boyata came the closest to scoring for City when he headed narrowly wide from a corner.

It was a disappointing day out at Wembley for City fans but they will take solace with the fact there is plenty of talent to come back into their team. Arsenal were by far the better of the two teams and will go into the new Premier League season full of confidence after their first Community Shield win since 2004.